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World powers meet to discuss Iran nuclear offer

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 04:11 CDT

By Madeline Chambers

LONDON (Reuters) - World powers meet in London on Wednesday to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's president, however, dampened hopes of any progress by insisting on Iran's right to a full range of nuclear technology.

Senior officials from UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus Germany, will try to narrow divisions over how to proceed to persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment work.

The head of Russia's atomic energy agency said in Washington he hoped for a "major breakthrough" at the London meeting but a U.S. official said more talks may be needed to reach agreement.

"I hope that this proposal would be a major breakthrough in this issue," Sergei Kiryenko said after talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior U.S. officials.

But he gave few details and it was unclear whether serious differences had been resolved between Washington and Moscow over U.S. demands that Iran face sanctions, resisted by Russia, if it continues to defy the international community.

Washington and some western nations suspect Iran's nuclear program is a cover for efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

But the Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear technology for civilian power generation.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a defiant message.

"Using nuclear energy is Iran's right," Ahmadinejad told a rally in a speech which was broadcast live on state television.

"The enemies who could not stop the Iranian nation of reaching nuclear technology by means of political pressure, conspiracies and using the tool of international organizations are now plotting against us," he said.

One EU diplomat said it was hard to see what the meeting, expected to start later in the morning, could achieve.

"It's really just an academic exercise, since the Iranians have made it clear that they won't accept any offer."

U.S.-RUSSIA RIFT

President Bush said countries had to work together to encourage Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

"Obviously we'd like to solve this issue peacefully and diplomatically, and the more the Iranians refuse to negotiate in good faith the more countries are beginning to realize that we must continue to work together," Bush said.

But Bush said Iran had so far not shown signs of agreeing and that Washington was working with partners, including Russia, to show them that Iran was "showing no good faith."

The package is likely to include an offer of a light-water reactor and an assured supply from abroad of fuel for civilian atomic plants so Iran would not have to enrich uranium itself.

Enriched uranium can be used as a nuclear fuel, but is also a key component of atomic weapons.

The package will also warn of possible sanctions if Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer, refuses the offer.

Diplomats say they would first discuss targeted sanctions, such as visa bans on officials involved in the nuclear program, before seeking ways of curtailing trade deals.

Some EU officials, analysts and the UN's nuclear watchdog -- the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- want Washington to engage with Iran.

They believe the only way to entice Iran back to negotiations and getting it to stop its nuclear work would be a U.S. pledge it would not try to topple the Tehran government.

The Washington Post, citing U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats, said on Tuesday Iran is making explicit requests for direct talks with the United States.

Top Iranian officials have asked intermediaries, including IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Indonesia, Kuwait and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to make clear to Washington their appetite for direct talks on its nuclear program, it said.

The State Department declined to give an immediate comment.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran, Lou Charbonneau in Berlin and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington.

Source: REUTERS

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